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Kti
--> General Info Kti is a noun-based language, and 60-70% of the verbs are derived from nouns. Non-existent nouns are derived from avaivable words and rarely are new words formed. Setting Kti (also known as "Ktarh") is the core language of the Oktarkh peoples, and all others (Dni, Akih...) are dialects (or creole languages) derived from Kti. Kti is spoken by the Kti, and the people named themselves according to their mother tongue. Punctuation Punctuation is a set of rules governing how senteances should be written and include, but aren't limited to, commas, full stops, capital letters and such. Capital Letter The capital letter, such as the 'T' at the beginning of this line, can be represented under these conditions: #The letter is at the beginning of a senteance. #When it begins a name (Akasha, Kti) #When the letter stands on the beginning of a word which names the name of an institution (the Senate, the Hexarchy, note that this is seperate from the above) #When it begins the name of a location, but only if we know which specific one (the Bazaar, the Gate, also seperate) These rules are always true, but there are some which have exceptions: #When a common noun is transformed into a name, in which case the first letter is capital if it signifies any relevant information. #When the object is no longer unique/ when it is plural, but only if we don't know which specific one (some Bazaar/some bazaars, some Forum/fora) Punctuation Marks Punctuation marks are symbols which indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud. Kti punctuation includes the following: #Comma #Full stop #Brackets #Question and exclamation marks #Colon and semicolon Comma Comma is a sign for dividing certain parts of a phrase or senteance, and it is usually represented as a mild stop. In Kti, it is written when it seperates fused senteances ( I wrote this, I did! ), seperates appositions ( My mother, a trained nurse...,) and to seperate clauses ( Wherever I go, you go ), although the latter is archaic and almost unused except in formal documents. Legal uses of the comma: *Seperating fused senteances *Seperating appositions *Seperating depentent clauses from the main senteance (rare) Seperating fused senteances occurs when there are two or more predicates in a senteance, denoting two or more simpler senteances in a complex one. Take the following text as an example: 'I had written a column of text, and therefore am tired' and compare it to the English 'I had written a column of text and therefore am tired'. Seperating appositions is relatively easy: The senteance with no seperation is 'The teacher a doctor of neurology and PhD candidate told us that studying is hard' and the same with seperation: 'The teacher, a doctor of neurology and PhD candidate, told us that studying is hard'. Basically, the comma is only here for aesthetics, and no longer retains the clause seperation, as this is replaced by specific marking. Full Stop Full stop, a dot at comma-level, is most oftenly used to end a senteance, but other uses for it are found. It is used for: #Ending a senteance #Shortening words (etc.) Though, if these uses are removed, full stops would have no meaning whatsoever. Brackets Brackets are curved lines that are used to represent hidden or additional information (such as this), IPA as in ðis and mathematical groups such as {x, y, w}. They can be used to relay otherwise uninteresting or not that relevant information, but sometimes (as used before), to supply us with vital information, i.e. to make the info stand out. Question and Exclamation Marks These marks (! and ?) are used to modify the meaning of a senteance. Exclamation marks are used when you want to accentuate/increase the impact of the senteance (I will kill you!) or to signify emotions (Please!). Question marks turn the senteance into a question. Question marks, as well as exclamation marks, stand at the end of senteances. Phonology Kti Alphabet The Kti alphabet contains the following letters: A,Sh,S,T,D,Z,Zh,H,O,N,M,K,U,Æ,R,I,E Single Letters Here single letters are introduced along with their IPA equivalents. Consonants Vowels *Appears only in diphthongs and triphthongs. =Vowel Lenght = Every vowel usually is in its standard IPA-based lenght, and two vowels next to one another can make diphthongs. Vowel length is doubled if conditions are met for the vowel: *If the vowel is back and next to a front, and either does not form a diph/triphthong or a V/C mix, it is doubled in length. *If the vowel is''' open-mid', and it ends a senteance, it is doubled in length. Diphthongs Diphthongs in Kti have priority over vowel-consonant mixes and triphthongs. Triphthongs Triphthongs in Kti have priority over vowel-consonant mixes. Vowel-Consonant Mixes Phonotactics The above pattern is followed untill the end, in which you can have a vowel or consonant ending. 'Note: dipthongs and triphthongs are concidered a single vowel!' The glottal stop ( ' ) doesn't count as a letter in these patterns. #A ##Can't be next to 'Æ' #Fricative ##Can't be next to 'S' ##With 'K' it ignores the mid-word syllable rules (can go together) #Dental Plosives ##Can't be next to a postalevolar plosive ##Can't be after 'K' #Postalevolar Plosives ##Can't be after a glottal fricative or a postalevolar fricative #Nasal ##Can't be next to another nasal ##Can't be next to the dental plosive #Glottal Stop ##Can only be found at the end of the first syllable. Basic Grammar Word order Kti is a head-final, Verb-Object-Subject language, which means that the first major/important word is (usually) the verb, followed by an optional object, then a subject. If multiple objects exist, the proper object follows an improper one. In Kti, adjectives come before nouns and pronouns, proverbs before verbs and p/articles occur prior to the word they relate to. Pronouns Like in all languages which have pronouns, in Kti pronouns replace nouns, pronouns and other parts of the senteance. But unlike English, in Kti the spotlight is on animacy, clusitivity and genders. Pronouns are declined equally as nouns, with certain exceptions. ''*Used only in literature, when animals talk to eachother or to members of other animacy levels. ×''Undead are not listed under dead, but as sentient since the undead talk.'' ××Used for naming a hypothetical object. Note that when mentioned the object turns to third person. Clusitivity By standart definition, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive ''first-person pronouns and verbal morphology , also called ''inclusive "we" and exclusive "we". Inclusive "we" specifically includes the addressee (that is, one of the words for "we" means "you and I"), while exclusive "we" specifically excludes the addressee (that is, another word for "we" means "he/she and I, but not you"), regardless of who else may be involved. There are three genders in Kti, which work together with four persons. ×''Used for naming a hypothetical object. Note that when mentioned the object turns to third person'' Mechanoid Mechanoid pronouns are listed under a seperate section, as machines do not follow the classic rules of animacy. For the plural forms, it is enough to follow the noun gender rules. Simmilar rules as above apply. * Dead machines cannot talk, because if they could talk, they'd be alive. Nouns Nouns are used to describe objects, beings, events and other things. Most languages have nouns, yet just under a sixth are derivational (a sixth of the world's languages make words out of new words). Declension In Kti, nouns have multiple grammatical categories. They are as follows: #'Animacy' #'Genders' #'Number' #'Cases' Animacy Kti has a complex animacy system, with several levels of animacy (how "alive" something is). Animacy is usually divided into the following categories: Dead: members of this group have been alive at an earlier point in time, but is no longer among the living. Inanimate: members of this group have never been alive, and due to that fact they cannot die. Critters: members of this group are unintelligent or semi-intelligent and alive, yet are less intelligent than the group below. Sentient: members of this grop are sentient, perhaps even sapient, and are capable of abstract thought, speech, logical thinking and reasoning. As with critters, they are alive, else they'd belong to the group of the dead. Declining nouns through animacy is somewhat different from other declensions, as it doesn't attach prefixes or suffixes, but it adds an infix before the last vowel. If the last vowel is at the very end of the word, the infix is before the vowel preceeding the last one. Note: these extensions are added to change the animacy of the noun. ×The 'æ' is dropped if it follows a vowel.'' '' ××It is excluded from diphthong creation. '' ''×××According to Kti, machines are sentient untill killed, and cannot be rendered inanimate. Gender There are three genders in Kti, masculine, feminine and mechanoid. Each gender differs from the other, logically. *These are easily reckognisable, and the endings are used to mainly change genders than to reckognise genders. To check the gender watch for an -e at the end of the word, that relates to a basic female. The gender extensions are added after cases and most other morphemes, at the end of the word. Number In Kti, a standard number system is used (singular/plural), and detecting/changing the number is rather simple: These extensions are added at the very end of the word, and have priority over everything else. If it happens that a noun already is plural, and it is needed to be singular, it is enough to just remove the extensions, but note which suffix you remove, as that may have been a part of a case. If the noun ends in a vowel or a diph/triphthong, the vowel or diph/triphthong is removed and the suffix added. Cases The hell with tenses. I'll just add them later since they are so complicated. Verbs Verbs are words that describe action, the one who completes the action, time of completion and such. The verbs are divided into '''auxiliary and main verbs. Auxiliary '''verbs are used to provide further syntatic or semantic info to '''main verbs. Main 'verbs represent the main action and make up the main body count of verbs. Verbs in Kti are conjugated according to: #'Gender #'Tense' #'Number' #'Person' #'Voice' #'Mood' #'Aspect' 'Gender' In this case, this refers to the gender of the corresponding subject. The three genders are introduced to the core word via prefixes, and if prefixes are missing, the subject's gender is either undisclosed or irrelevant. This is rarely used. *These are used if the word starts with a vowel. If the vowel needs a gender change, the current prefix should be removed and a corresponding one added. Tense Tenses represent the temporal value of the referenced actions. Tenses branch into simple and more complex. Simple '''tenses are the basic tenses, self-sufficient and needn't have auxiliary verbs. '''Complex tenses use simple tenses of auxiliary and main verbs to be formed, and usually represent actions with certain parts in more than one time. Among others, the most common tenses are simple present, past, and future 'tenses in Kti, each expressing their corresponding period, and there are tenses with multiple possible times (future/present for example) which, for example, describe an action which has started in the past and has finished at the time of utterance. Basic Tenses Basic tenses are tenses that are formed only via the infinitive, without other verbs to meddle in the process. These verbs contrast with Compex Tenses, and those are formed by combining various different things. ='Present Simple = A verb in Present Simple describes an action which is happening now, at the time of utterance. The following table depicts the Present simple of the verb 'to be' (kin): Because 'kin' is irregular, the table doesn't apply to other verbs, but only to 'kin'. The rules governing Present Simple are different. Let's take the verb 'to love' (kuhiton) for example: In this example, the infinitive's main form is 'kuhiton'. The ending -ton is discarded for singular. In this case, -iton is discarded for the plural form of Present Simple because if we remove only -ton, 'i' would remain. For plurals, the infix -aru- is added before the extensions, but after the root. At the end, new extensions are added: Using this table, you can see which endings you should use (or if you prefer, which suffixes should you attach) to the main word. Here are rules for Present Perfect: #'The ending -ton which marks the verb as an infinitive is removed and corresponding suffixes are added.' #'If by removal the vowels 'i' or 'æ' are exposed, they too are removed for the plural form.' #'The infix '-aru-' is added in between the ending and the original verb.' #'It is used for': ##'Describing action which is currently being preformed, without known duration.' ##'Describing the current state of being.' =Past Simple = The verb in Past Simple describes an action which happened already in the past and is not happening now. I will use 'kin' again to demonstrate an irregular declension: In the following example, I will use the regular verb I already used (kuhiton) in this table: There is a patern here, too: The verb 'kuhimi' is equal to 'I loved'. Here, too, there is an infix, but this time it is '-ma-' and is added at the same place as the one in Present Simple. Here are the rules governing Past Simple: #'The ending -ton which marks the verb as an infinitive is removed and corresponding suffixes are added.' #'If by removal the vowels 'i' or 'æ', or plosive consonants are exposed, they are removed as well.' #'The infix '-ma-' is added in between the ending and the original verb.' #'Past Simple is used for:' ## Describing an action which happened in the past and is exclusive to it. ' ##'Describing the previous state of being. #'The action occured only once and ended.' ='Past Aorist' = The Past Aorist, or the Aorist tense, is the tense which describes an action which has occured in the past, but we don't know if it ended, when it started, and the Past Aorist tense refers to a past action in the "pure and simple" way. There is no English equivalent to the Past Aorist tense. 'To be' (kin) is going to be used again as an irregular example: And here is an examle of the verb 'kuhition': And here are the endings: In the plural form, 'i' is removed and an infix added as with the others. This time, the infix is '-ami-' Here are the Past Aorist rules: #'The ending -ton which marks the verb as an infinitive is removed and corresponding suffixes are added.' #'If by removal the vowels 'i' or 'æ', or plosive consonants are exposed, they are removed as well.' #'The infix '-ami-' is added in between the ending and the original verb.' #'Past Aorist is used for:' ## Describing an action in its pure form, without duration or completion. ' ##'Naming a past action. #'The action is in its pure, timeless form, therefore we don't know if it ended, how long it lasted etc.' Complex Tenses Complex tense are formed via the basic verb forms. These tenses use auxiliary verbs in combination with the main verb. The complex tenses are the Pluperfect of Action and Future Simple. For the complex tenses, there are no exceptions such as irregular verbs because all the verbs follow the tense's rules. If something cannot be expressed using tenses, that can be done with the mood, aspect or voice. =Pluperfect of Action = The Pluperfect of Action, or shortly the Pluperfect, refers to a past action ( as in English 'had thought' ) and the action has already been completed. All auxilary verbs have the prefix 'de-' added to them in the Present Simple to make the verb's Pluperfect of Action. For main verbs, you need to take the Aorist of the main verb and the Pluperfect of 'kin' (dekni, for example). Here is 'kuhiton' in the Pluperfect of Action: These are the rules governing the Pluperfect of Action: #'The Pluperfect form of 'kin' is taken and added prior to the Aorist of the main verb.' #'It represents a past action, further into the past than the Past Simple.' #'We know that the action ended some time in the past and lasted for a certain amount of time.' #'Auxiliary verbs, as in all the complex tenses, have a prefix (here being 'de-').' ='Future Simple' = Future Simple 'is the tense which represents an action that has yet to happen, and is going to last a certain amount of time before finishing. Auxiliary verbs in Future Simple have the prefix 'ra-' added before their Present Simple form to make them future. This also applies to the verb 'to move' (nauton). The verb 'kin' in Future Simple: Turning a main verb into a future simple verb is easy: take the infinitive of the main verb and add 'kin' in the Future Simple before the main verb. Here are '''Future Simple '''rules: #'The Future Simple form of 'kin' is taken and is added prior to the infinitive of the main verb (the only exception is 'nauton'). #'It represents a future action that is yet to happen.' #'We predict or know that the action is going to begin and end in the future.' #'Auxiliary verbs, as in all the complex tenses, and the verb 'nauton' have a prefix (here being 'ra-').' Voice In grammar, the voice (also called diathesis) of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the Active Voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the action, it is said to be in the Passive Voice. The passive voice is further divided into the Dynamic and Static '''passives. Passive Voice The '''Active Voice, being the default one (I love/kuhitei) has no markers to represent it. The Passive Voice, on the other hand, uses markers which change according to person. =Static Passive = The Static Passive '''voice represents an action which is done by the agent, not the subject, and the subject usually being the patient. 'The hunter is killed by the bear' is an example of that type of passive. The marker corresponding to the static passive is ' u'ru ' and it changes according to the person, but not number: The marker is added after the verb and modifies the preceding verb. =Dynamic Passive = The '''Dynamic Passive voice represents an actio which is being completed by an unknown and irrelevant agent and the subject being usually the patient. 'The lawn is being mown' is an example of the Dynamic Passive. The marker corresponding to the dynamic passive is ' ara'ma ' and it also changes only according to person: The dynamic passive marker is added before the verb and modifies the following verb. Mood Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality. Moods vary in their usage and purpose. In English, the Imperative (I command you to eat! ) is substantially different from the Indicative (John ate '''apples), although this doesn't apply to all languages. Moods are divided into the Realis and '''Irrealis '''moods. Realis moods Realis moods are a category of grammatical moods that indicate that something is actually the case or actually not the case (Cats are fast, Mary didn't cry). Kti realis moods are the '''Indicative '''and '''Generic. =Indicative mood = The Indicative doesn't need to be described in detail, as the examples in the Tense category are all in the Indicative mood. =Generic mood = The Generic mood '''describes an attribute of something. This can be shown in the senteance 'Cats are fast', where the verb 'to be' is in the Generic mood. Here, it too doesn't have a special verb form to represent the Generic. The pattern for the Generic mood follows: TO BE => ATTRIBUTE => PATIENT where the Patient can be 'Cats' and Attribute 'Fast', where 'To be' can be in any tense, voice, person etc. The example 'Cats are fast' would be transformed to 'Are fast cats'. Note: You can only take the active voice for the Generic. Irrealis moods Irrealis moods are the opposite of realis moods, as in they don't indicate that something is or isn't the case. This can be represented in the following senteance: 'Go eat! ' where the verbs 'to eat' and 'to go' are in the imperative. Kti Irrealis moods are the '''Imperative, Conditional I and the Conditional II. =Imperative = The Imperative mood indicates a command ( read! ) and it is usually used for giving commands to the second person, although you can say to yourself 'keep eating!', but in English, it would still be in the second person. You can form the Imperative by taking the present simple of the verb in the active voice, either the first or second person, then add the suffixes corresponding to the ending: If the verb ends in the vowel '-i', add '-re', but if it ends in a consonant, add '-an'. =Conditional I = Conditional I, or as it is commonly written, the First Conditional, is one of two possible conditionals. The first conditional represents an action whose needs haven't been fulfilled ( Snails would be fast if they were to evolve jet engines and wings to lift off and fly away ). It is represented this way: O- => VERB => Ne => CONDITION(S) Here, 'O- ' is the prefix which denotes the first conditional, you probably know what 'VERB' is, 'Ne' is a special word just for the conditionals, and 'CONDITION(S)' come afterwards. If you have multiple conditions, you will need special rules to make a phrase which makes sense: CONDITION 1 => æt => CONDITION 2 => ...''ad infinitum'' The word 'æt' is a connector which links the conditions, it would roughly mean 'and', but has a much narrower meaning. =Conditional II = Conditional II, or as it is commonly written, the Second Conditional, is one of two possible conditionals. The second conditional represents an action whose needs have been fulfilled ( John ate because he was hungry ). It is repesented in the following manner: Ra- => VERB => Ne => CONDITION(S) Here, 'Ra- ' is the prefix which denotes the second, you should know what 'VERB' is, 'Ne' is a special word just for the conditionals, and 'CONDITION(S)' come afterwards. If you have multiple conditions, you will need special rules to make a phrase which makes sense, and these rules are shared with the first conditional. Technically, in both conditionals, you could remove the 'Ne', but it's not common. Aspect The aspect describes a temporal flow of a verb, or a lack of the same. Aspect can be explained in English with the senteances 'I eat' and 'I am eating'. The first one is nonprogressive while the other is progressive. In Kti, the aspects are '''Perfective '''and Nonperfective. These aspects aren't usually distinguished on a morphological level, but the aspect is embedded into their meaning. Perfective Aspect The perfective aspect describes an action which cannot go on forever. In English, it would sound like: 'I finished eating'. To make a nonperfective verb perfective, suffixes can be added at the very end of the word. This can be shown in the following example: 'Kuhinirai' would roughly correspond to 'I loved but it's finished/but I do not love anymore'. The verb can be in any tense, any voice, mood or person to be changed. The suffixes are: '-rai' if the verb ends in a vowel, '-am' if the verb ends in a consonant, '-deku' if the verb contains a glottal stop and ends in a vowel, and '-iti' if the verb contains a glottal stop and ends in a consonant. Imperfective Aspect The imperfective aspect describes an action which can go on forever. In English, it would sound like: 'I am eating and I can continue eating indefinately'. It isn't possible to make a perfective verb imperfective, as that would sound like: 'I am going to sit down and sitting down will go on forever'. Dictionary Example text Category:Languages Category:Kti